Elliot Olshansky has an interesting look at the Hockey East Hobey candidates, using a statistical formula to basically evaluate how clutch they are. Casey Wellman leads the league for forwards.
Speaking of Wellman, the Red Line Report, a scouting website and USA Today contributor, is saying that “he’s ready to leave the classroom immediately if NHL clubs come calling.” My general feeling about players leaving early is it’s their decision and I would rather not have players on the team if they’re not 100% committed and would rather be elsewhere. That only creates problems in the locker room. My specific feeling to Wellman’s pro prospects? He’s certainly on a high development rate right now given how well he’s done in his first two years. In my opinion is his pro potential greater than that of say Greg Mauldin who also left early to go pro (granted under much different circumstances) and has to date played only 6 games in the NHL? I’m not sure, but at the same time the Red Line Report knows much more about scouting hockey than I do. But we’ll see how this plays out. There were substantial rumors that James Marcou was most likely leaving after last season but that did not materialize.
Δ
According to the Black and Blue Lincoln Stars Blog, Chris DelMauro has decided to head out west to play the remainder of his season in the USHL. I think this is a great move. Nothing like playing against and with the best to develop your game.
Conor Allen followed up his USHL Player of the Week honors with another good game as he had a goal and an assist in a 5-1 win for Sioux Falls.
Eric Filiou is still out with mono for the Penticton Vees.
Nick Gordon, one of the recruits to keep an eye on, had five assists for Northfield-Mount Hermon in a game over the weekend.
Δ
Thanks to the LA Times for providing links to Jon Quick’s Olympic mask. See the mask here and the backplate here.
It sounds like Scott Crowder’s Pond Hockey Classic was a big hit over the weekend. The honor presented to the winning teams? The Winnipehockey Cup, of course.
Not surprisingly Friday’s drubbing at the hands of Boston College did not help UMass in this week’s polls. The Minutemen drop to #18 in the latest USCHO poll. They are the first “Also Receiving Votes” team in the latest USA Today poll.
UMass is still hanging in there in the pairwise as they find themselves tied for 9th place with North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth. This will be changing in a matter of hours however when the Beanpot results go final.
They come in at #20 in the INCH power rankings.
Δ
James Marcou was named a Top Performer in this week’s Hockey East release.
Earlier in the week with voting going on for the UMass All-Decade team on the Hockey East website I reiterated my personal picks for the slots. FTT reader George recently asked in a comment what my picks would be if there were a 2nd team. Here we go:
F – Chris Capraro
F – Cory Quirk
F – Tim Turner
D – Marvin Degon
D - Mike Kostka
G - Gabe Winer
The picks for forward were pretty straightforward. Chris Capraro gets the nod over P.J. Fenton for his ability to score clutch goals. Matt Anderson is hurt by the games he lost to injury, otherwise he may be on this list over Quirk. The second spot at defense was tough because Nick Kuiper could easily be there. I went with Kostka because of his solid two-way game and the fact that he was 2nd team All-Hockey East. I readily admit that Mark Matheson gets completely screwed in this evaluation. He belongs somewhere on this list but because he was such a versatile player who split time at both defense and forward, I have no idea where to put him, especially at the expense of one of these other players. Obviously Hockey East had the same problem as they didn’t put him on the All-Decade ballot.
Another reader asked what my Hockey East All-Decade team would be. Look for those picks sometime soon.
Δ
Well UMass wakes up this morning now in fourth place after Maine’s come from behind win over UNH moved them into a tie with BC for second. The Minutemen are four points ahead of Lowell, BU, UVM for the final home ice spot. Get those rearview mirrors adjusted, they’ll be well-used for the stretch run ahead. I’m still amazed that Lowell got swept and now finds itself with a fingernail grip on the last Team Under Consideration slot in the pairwise. With their uneven make up of class years on their roster this is the second cycle in a row where the River Hawks have had an upperclassmen laden team with high expectations completely underperform. They now have a losing record in Hockey East after being picked to finish second by the coaches.
Another night of sleep away from the debacle that was Friday night’s game gives a little more perspective. If the team can learn from what transpired then and realize that you cannot take nights, period, or shifts off at this point in the hockey season and it focuses them on the task at hand, then the loss may almost be worth it. As I wrote in the recap yesterday I’m worried about this team mentally though and their inability to play well in big games. I really hope it’s not a self-confidence issue as this collection of guys are surely one of the best to put on the maroon and white and have already accomplished much. I believe that’s why the fans have, maybe somewhat unreasonably, high expectations. But it’s only because they’ve shown us that when they want to be, they can be the best team on the ice. Hopefully we see some more of that during the next few weeks.
Δ
The New Haven Register has a lengthy story on Jon Quick this morning that’s well worth reading. Quick and the Kings beat “old friend” Jimmy Howard and the Red Wings last night 3-2.
Δ
In December I passed along the link to an story ESPN did on Brendan Burke, the openly gay student manager for Miami and son of Toronto GM Brian Burke. Unfortunately there is now a tragic final chapter to that tale as Brendan lost his life over the weekend on a snowy road in Indiana. Taken too early, Brendan still showed a lifetime’s worth of courage in his few short years of life.
Δ
Yesterday I wrote “If you can’t get pumped up for this game, well then you just do not enjoy college hockey.” Little did I know that it would be the UMass players, not the fans, that wouldn’t get up for such a high profile game.
This team has a lot of skill and has certainly surpassed the pre-season expectations of them, but they are lacking a mental toughness and in the end it could keep them from making this a truly special season. Last night was just another sign that this team is missing something. After a great start to the season the team plays #9 Quinnipiac on NESN only to give up three quick first period goals and they ended up dropping the game in overtime. A month later with a chance for the program to win only its second in-season tournament ever the team loses to Bentley 4-1 in one of the bigger upsets of the year in all of college hockey. A week later UMass gets embarrassed on national TV by a struggling BU squad and gives up 7 goals in the process. They then give up another 7 the very next game against UNH. Just a few weeks ago with ESPNU and Barry Melrose in the house and a chance to sweep the season series against Vermont the team sleepwalks through the game and loses 3-0. Then we get to last night, a marquee matchup, again in front of TV and a sellout audience and the team doesn’t come to play. It’s mind-boggling. Whenever this team has had a challenge in front of them they’ve completely folded. I don’t think any of the previous no-shows were as upsetting as last night however.
I’m not going to get into the details of the game because frankly the entire thing was a disaster. Hopefully there was a lesson learned though, otherwise this entire season could become unravelled pretty quickly. As it is the team has made life a lot tougher for themselves by now needing to go out and get even more points on the road after throwing away the last two games due to complete and total lack of effort.
Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Brett Watson
As Toot said in his press conference if only UMass could’ve had 19 other players that played as hard as he did.
Δ
Here’s the recap from the Collegian.
Here’s USCHO’s game story.
Dick Baker says at least it wasn’t as bad as the 14-1 loss in 1996. No, but this certainly had the feel of a triangle-era game.
Here’s the recap from the Gazette.
#14 Boston College Eagles 14-8-2, (Hockey East 10-6-2 T-2nd)
at
#15 Massachusetts Minutemen 16-10-0, (Hockey East 11-8-0 T-2nd)
Official Boston College Hockey Site
What a way to start February in Hockey East. Here we have the #14 and #15 teams in the country, both tied for second place in the conference meeting in a sold out Mullins Center broadcast to a NESN TV audience. If you can’t get pumped up for this game, well then you just do not enjoy college hockey. For UMass these are two huge points. Not only will they surge ahead of BC and grab second place all by themselves with a win but it will give them a chance to take the season series and all important tie-breaker when the teams meet at Conte Forum later this month.
Boston College is coming off a 6-0 spanking of Harvard in the first round of the Beanpot this past Monday. Though Harvard is pretty bad this year, the result was still impressive. And I think I’m more impressed by the shutout than putting a half dozen goals up on the TD Bank jumbotron. The Eagles were able to keep the Crimson off the board even though they were playing with four defensemen the entire game. With both Patrick Wey and Tommy Cross out, as they’ll likely be tonight, the rest of the defensive corps and John Muse were able to step up their game and still got a dominating win.
Even if the BC defense does happen to falter due to missing players, their high powered offense will still give them a good chance to win. Coming into tonight’s game they are tied with Maine for the top scoring offense in the league with 3.67 goals per game, about a half a goal more than the Minutemen. Sophomore Cam Atkinson has been the most dangerous scorer for the Eagles with 16 goals in 24 games, two of those coming against UMass in the earlier meeting of these teams. Ben Smith and Brian Gibbons are the two other forwards with double digits in goals. Keep an eye on BC’s impressive freshmen forwards of Chris Kreider, Steve Whitney, and Pat Mullane, all capable of impacting the game result.
The absence of Cross and Wey leave a depleted and inexperienced defense that still has enough talent to keep teams off the board. Carl Sneep is the lone upperclassmen on the blueline while sophomore Ed Shea (brother of UMass recruit Colin Shea) does have a year under his belt. Beyond that freshmen Phillip Samuelsson and Brian Dumoulin will have to have big games for the Eagles. In net John Muse is returning to the form of his freshman year when he backstopped the Eagles to the national championship. So far on the season he has posted a 2.47 goals against average, 2nd best among Hockey East goaltenders.
Obviously if UMass is able to take advantage of BC’s thinness at defense they’ll dramatically increase their odds of winning. The blueliners out there may be inexperienced, but remember that BC had arguably the best incoming class this year, so they certainly have skill. If Jerry York chooses to primarily stick with just four defensemen it’ll be imperative for Toot to open things up on offense for the Minutemen. UMass has speed and having the BC defense chase them all over the ice will wear them down and lead to mistakes. They cannot play conservative tonight. I say let the boys skate, feed off the noise made by the record crowd, and see what happens. It should be a great game, I hope you already have your ticket.
Δ
Dick Baker’s game preview in the Republican features Eddie Olczyk, fresh off scoring his first collegiate goal.
Matt Vautour has the injury update. Danny Hobbs will be a gametime decision. Unfortunately Doug Kublin will not make it back for tonight. It’s easy to overlook his constant contributions until he’s missing. Matty V also has quotes from Paul Dainton saying that he enjoys playing against Muse since the two are friends and train together. Ironically if Muse doesn’t choose BC over UMass (Harvard was also in the mix) then Dainton never comes to Western Mass.
The Collegian has a couple of stories on tonight’s game. The first focuses on the long term importance of the matchup while the second talks about the parity among Hockey East this year as well as what Paul Dainton may expect tonight.
The weekly USCHO Hockey East column has a feature on the UMass team. Of course they then go on to predict a loss for the Minutemen tonight. That’s exactly how I like it.
Δ
James Marcou stays atop the Inside Hockey Hobey Watch.
The Williams College hockey team is collecting donations for every goal scored this season for Peter Trovato’s Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund. Go Ephs!
Here’s another article on Scott Crowder’s Pond Hockey Classic which takes place this weekend.
Hockey East is having fans vote for their program’s all-decade team. For UMass the winners will be announced on February 20th during the game against Merrimack. I made my picks back in late December:
G Jon Quick
D Justin Braun
D Thomas Pöck
F Stephen Werner
F James Marcou
F Greg Mauldin
Δ
Speaking of Quick, according to the New England Hockey Journal his good play combined with Tim Thomas’ sub-par performances of late is helping move Quick into the backup spot behind Ryan Miller in the Olympic rotation.
On Sunday I ventured over to Walpole to watch the Atlantic Junior All-Star Game featuring future Minutemen Kevin Boyle and Chris DelMauro. This was my first time where I was really able to watch DelMauro as he hadn’t committed when I previously had gone to see the New Jersey Rockets play in New Hampshire. He has decent size at 6′1″, 180. His line (with two other Rocket linemates) started the game for the South team. Overall I thought he played well. He looks to be a grinder type player with some offensive skill, maybe similar to Scott Crowder. Since it was an All-Star Game most players weren’t playing overly physical so I wasn’t able to see that aspect of his game. He skates very well and seems quite athletic. At one point he was skating through the slot when one of his teammates shot for the point and he jumped at least two feet in the air as to not block the shot and landed without missing a stride, drawing some “Ohs” from the crowd. He seemed to play smart, was well positioned, and had good vision of the ice both on offense and defense. He almost became a hero toward the end of the game when his team was down 2-1 and he received a pass on the break and got off a nice skill shot only to have it clang off the post.
Kevin Boyle played the third period of the game. Unfortunately he entered with his team down 1-0 and quickly gave up a goal five hole to Mercyhurst recruit Tommy Thompson. But he settled down after that and played well, having to come up with a couple tough saves. One save that stood out was a slapshot up high that he was able to get a piece of, it deflected back and bounced off the glass in back of him. He had the wherewithal to turn and follow the puck and thus was ready to catch the puck in his glove as it otherwise would’ve bounced off him and in.
There were a few uncommitted recruits that caught my eye but the one that stood out the most was David Bondra from the Washington Junior Nationals. Yes, Peter Bondra’s son. He looked good all over the ice and was able to get the South’s lone goal on a penalty shot where he put a nice half-slapshot in the perfect spot high corner. I’m not sure if he’s planning on going the college or major junior route, but maybe he’s a kid that Toot is targeting.
Δ
Congrats to captain Brett Watson who was named one of the nominees for the Hockey Humanitarian Award. The award goes to a men’s or women’s hockey player who gives back to their community and is seen as college hockey’s finest citizen. Also representing Hockey East are Lowell’s Barry Goers and UNH’s Bobby Butler while Kirsten Dier of crosstown Amherst College was also nominated. Watson has been heavily involved in the Big Brother/Big Sister program while at UMass and has even recruited teammates to volunteer as well.
Δ
The most recent USCHO Bracketology has UMass as the #2 seed in the Fort Wayne regional. Interesting to note that if the tournament started today the ECAC would be on equal ground with the CHA and Atlantic Hockey in terms of number of bids with one.
Δ
Martin Nolet is talked about in this Hockey’s Future article covering the L.A. Kings prospects in the NCAA. Justin Braun is covered in their article on the college prospects of the San Jose Sharks. Lastly, here’s their coverage of the New York Rangers prospects including Danny Hobbs.
Δ
Jon Quick was an Honorable Mention for NHL Player of the Month for January. He was 10-3-0 for the month.
Dick Baker of the Republican has a nice story on Darren Rowe on the heels of his two assist performance last Saturday. Baker mentions what I’ve been wondering, will Rowe eventually be moved up to forward? It seems like he’d be better suited given his offensive abilities, size or lack thereof, and his so-so play on defense. Going into next season Toot will have the daunting task of trying to replace both Justin Braun and Martin Nolet on defense. Currently on the roster are redshirts Anthony Raiola and Djan Lefebvre as well as Mike Donnellan who has only been used sparingly. Coming in will be Joel Hanley, Colin Shea, and Conor Allen. Assuming three out of those six can be used on an everyday basis there should be room to transition Rowe up front. At the very least he could go back and forth on a game to game basis the way Mark Matheson did a few years back.
The Daily Collegian recaps the weekend that was. Toot reiterates the point I made in my recap about the importance of producing goals from the other lines.
The game notes are up for the Boston College game already. Operation 8K is in full effect.
Δ
According to USHR UMass has lost out on recruit Nick Luukko as the 6′2″ 180lb defenseman will be heading to Vermont instead. Luukko is currently playing for Gunnery Prep. What hurts a little is that his dad is a UMass alum and President of the Philladelphia Flyers. I mentioned him in my blog around the time of the Winter Classic.
In good news Conor Allen was named USHL Defenseman of the Week. Allen had two goals and a +5 rating over the weekend.
Joel Hanley seems to be recovering well from his broken leg and picking up where he left off for the Newmarket Hurricanes. He has two goals in his first three games back from injury.
Peter Deangelo had two goals and an assists in three games this weekend for the Junior Monarchs.
Mike Pereira (44pts) and Conor Sheary (41pts) continue to climb up the scoring ranks in New England prep hockey. They’re 5th and 11th respectively.
Interesting to note that three brothers of UMass recruits played on three different Beanpot teams yesterday; Mike Pereira’s brother Joe for BU, Chris Del Mauro’s brother Mike for Harvard, and Colin Shea’s brother Ed for BC. T.J. Syner’s cousin Barry Almeida was also on the ice for the Eagles.
Δ
The Nashua Telegraph has an article on Scott Crowder and his Pond Hockey Classic which takes place this weekend.
Not surprisingly a weekend split meant not much movement in the polls for the Minutemen. And by not much I mean none.
Still 15th in the USCHO Poll and the USA Today poll. Boston College lands one spot ahead of them in both.
They check in at 18th in the INCH Power Rankings.
Δ
Dan Meyers was named as a Hockey East Top Performer for his performance on Saturday. Also of note on the release are a couple of milestones. James Marcou has tied his season record for assists while Will Ortiz has tied the modern era record for game winners.
Also on the award front both James Marcou and Casey Wellman were named as semi-finalists for the Walter Brown Award which goes to the best American-born college player in New England. This is the third time in three years that Marcou has been up for the award.
Dan Meyers (photo by Karen Winger)
Well, no sooner do I note that the team is only 1-3 in games with over 40 shots and unable to score more than 2 goals in those games than the team blows those numbers away. In the end the Minutemen generated 43 shots en route to a 4-1 win to gain two key road points at Providence last night.
Unlike the previous night when UMass was able to make the most of their shots, mostly through some nice passing as well as some good old fashion crashing of the net. The passing came exclusively from Darren Rowe who played the best game of his UMass career. He had two heads up passes across the slot, the first to Mike Marcou to get UMass its first goal while the other came later to secure the win in the third as he setup Eddie Olczyk’s first collegiate score. The two goals in the middle came from UMass camping out in front of the goaltender waiting for a loose puck and Rocco Carzo and Will Ortiz were able to make the most of those Alex Beaudry rebounds and put them home. Beaudry actually played very well and made a couple spectacular saves but in the end UMass just put too many shots on him to stop and he got very little help in front of him.
Another big positive from the game, the team was able to put up four goals without any of them being scored by the first line of Marcou-Wellman-Syner. Don’t get me wrong, of course I want to see those guys score early and often. However if this team is going to be a legitimate conference and national contender this Spring they’re going to need scoring from their other lines and tonight showed that that was possible.
Overall, this was a much needed result. The win puts UMass back into a 2nd place tie with Boston College, though the Minutemen have played one more game than BC and 1st place UNH and two more than the teams behind them, Maine and Lowell. It also keeps them in good position in the pairwise as they’re currently tied for 7th, still the top spot among Hockey East teams. Lastly, while Providence is still a last place team, it hopefully gives them a little confidence in their play on the road which will be key down the stretch run. Now the Minutemen can watch Beanpot tomorrow and scout their next opponent for a 2nd place showdown at the Mullins on Friday.
Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Dan Meyers
Though not entirely his fault, Meyers hasn’t exactly had the senior season he was probably hoping for and many fans would’ve been completely satisfied if Toot went with Paul Dainton for the rest of the season. Yet there was Meyers in net tonight, composed and ready to help lead the Minutemen to victory. From the drop of the puck he was completely on his game and while it was nice he finally got some goalscoring support in this start, he pretty much didn’t need it.
Δ
Dick Baker has the recap for the Republican. In fact, it’s the only recap I can find.
Δ
Jon Quick helped lead the Kings to a shootout win over the putrid Boston Bruins.
The ECHL’s Reading Royals gave out a four foot figurine of Quick at last night’s game. Ah, minor league hockey promotions. What will they think of next?
I’m still trying to find pictures of Quick’s olympic mask. If anyone comes across them on the internet please send me the link.
